File compression programs are fine (see Double Your Pleasure in this issue), but they suffer from slow speed and non-transparent (opaque?) operation. A new board for PC-clones will solve that problem by providing hardware data compression that can reduce file size an average of three times

At the Special Interest Group for Computers and Human Interaction (SIGCHI), Home Row Inc. demonstrated the technology for a replacement for the standard mouse or trackball

Apple kindly provides an upgrade path from the Macintosh SE to the Mac SE/30, which uses the same case. However, as people on Usenet have recently discovered, the upgrade is not as straightforward as one might hope

In response to a number of suggestions, several small changes have been made in the TidBITS stack. They will not transfer to the previous stacks already in your TidBITS Archive, but they will be present from now on. First, there is an invisible button at the top of the screen which shows the menu bar when you move into it and hides the menu bar when you move out of it

A number of people on Usenet have complained about Freesoft's White Knight's inability to display more than 24 lines in VT100 emulation mode. The White Knight window itself can be sized to display more lines, but doing so produces unexpected results

Since the introduction of the SuperDrive (officially known as the FDHD for a while), users have had mixed feelings. On the one hand, no one minds having 1.4 megabytes of storage on a single floppy

Ashton-Tate's new versions of dBASE for the Mac and PC will share the look and feel of the DOS command line environment and will be 100% data and program compatible with each other

The Usenet rumor mill has been grinding the low-cost Mac into a fine flour. Evidently, some people have heard that Apple is striking a deal with Tandy, the computer name behind Radio Shack, either to build and market or just to build a low cost Mac

With all the hullabaloo about the Mac IIfx, there has been much discussion from jealous Plus and SE owners on how to bring their Macs up to speed and snuff

Although IBM has not made an official announcement, a front page article in PC WEEK reveals IBM's plans for an August-release, low-cost home computer. This system, if released promptly, could steer potential buyers toward IBM if Apple cannot come through with its promise of a low-cost Macintosh

In response to the burgeoning laptop market, WordPerfect is putting together a new word processor called LetterPerfect. LetterPerfect files will be 100% compatible with WordPerfect IBM 5.1 files (and theoretically with WordPerfect Mac 1.0.4 files, but we don't know exactly how that will work and WordPerfect Mac should be at release 2.0 before LetterPerfect comes out)

Global Village Communications has introduced a unique modem that attaches to the Mac's ADB ports like a keyboard or mouse. The $225 TelePort modem does not require a power supply and communicates at 300, 1200, and 2400 baud with class 5 MNP

A new screen from Reflection Technology has the physical dimensions of a sugar packet, but the viewing dimensions of a 12" monitor. The screen uses a headband to attach to your head and extends a few inches out from the headband in front of one of your eyes

Microlytics Inc. has come up with the perfect desk accessory for folks who know perfectly well what they want to say but cannot think of the word. The dictionary allows you to type in definitions and then tells you what words you might be thinking of

For anyone working on a IIci with After Dark, the screensaver from Berkeley Systems, you should upgrade to version 1.1c. The new version fixes a bug that causes crashes when the screensaver kicks in while DAs are open